PT Usha: When GOAT Fails On Solidarity Game (Image:instagram.com/ptushaofficial)
In the early hours of 9 August 1984, when Usha ran in the Los Angeles Olympic stadium, thousands of Indians tuned in to watch her on their own television sets or neighbour’s. Arguably, no Indian woman had been watched by so many Indians, or had such a large audience in general, in a setting as grand as the Olympics, as Usha did that afternoon in Los Angeles.
-Sohini Chattopadhyay, The Day I Became a Runner
PT Usha was the only name people could talk about at that time. Her serious-looking face with hair tied tightly back in a bun first comes to mind when thinking about Usha. Fondly called ‘Golden Girl’, ‘Sprint Queen’, and ‘Payyoli Express’, she became the first Indian woman and the fourth Indian to qualify for an Olympic athletics final for an individual event.
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Usha is one of the most celebrated Indian athletes of all time, who has won 11 medals, including four golds, in the Asian Games from 1982 to 1994. She has bagged all the four gold in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay, and also won a silver in 100m. In 1982 New Delhi Asian Games, she has won a 100m and 200m medals. And in the Asian Championships from 1983 to 1998, Usha has bagged remarkable 23 medals, including 14 gold.
However, amid all the achievements and commendable performances she is most remembered for is her loss in Los Angeles Olympics 1984. In the 400-meter hurdles, she missed out on a Bronze Medal by one-hundredth of a second.
Usha is synonymous with discipline, strictness, and fierceness. It is the same qualities that propelled her to come back after announcing retirement, and start an athletics academy for girl, Usha School of Athletics, in her native place near Kozhikode. From 2022 onwards, she is helming the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), etched history again by becoming its first woman president.
However, there is a stark difference in the inspiring life story of Usha and her blunt and harsh political statements. Her life story as an athlete and running a sports academy for girls, gives a perception of her as an advocate of women’s advancement. But, while she ascertains financial independence for women, she stresses, ‘No feminism please’.
Her statements concerning serious topics are not just pro-establishment but problematic. Usha was dismissive and scornful of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, especially sit-in protest in Shaheen Bagh led by women. While female wrestlers protesting sexual harassment charges against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Usha stated wrestlers protesting on streets are not good for sport, and are harming India’s image, amounts to indiscipline. However, in July this year, a year after the protest, expressed regrets over “deep regret for any perception of insensitivity or lack of empathy” over wrestlers’ protest. “The welfare and well-being of our athletes are paramount, and I am committed to ensuring their voices are heard and respected,” Sportstar reports as Usha is saying.
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Recently, her comments on Vinesh Phogat’s Olympic disqualification has also caught attention. Though as IOA chief, she removed the management from the accountability and issues a statement that responsibility to ‘maintain weight’ during the wrestling event lies on athlete and her support staff; “…the responsibility of weight management of athletes in sport like wrestling, weightlifting, boxing and judo is that of each athlete and his or her coach and NOT that of the IOA-appointed Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala and his team,” Usha said.
Usha, who knows the value of an Olympic medal and the value of one hundredth of a second, fails to pledge support to her fellow sports champions where her straight-talk mostly alludes to those in power, and misses the quality of camaraderie and solidarity that sports demand.
